Yeah. That's a worse contract than I had at my last job and it wasn't even union. We get three personal days a year. These people are way more essential and have much more strenuous jobs. Everybody thinks the trains run themselves, but the point is that the operators have to be there and awake and paying attention the whole time just in case something does go wrong, because the system doesn't always pick it up in time, and if that does happen, the result will be an industrial disaster.
Basically, Congress is clearly trying to break the union, and bargaining on the idea that computers have solved the real knowledge needed to run the trains. It is likely the union reps believe the same thing, because they are also computer jockey dickweeds, so they are willing to kowtow because they don't want the union to be broken. The reason the rank & file believes differently is because they run the trains day-to-day and understand that, if anything, they are under-staffed. The computers fuck up all the time, and even when things do run smoothly, being there and being at attention is a huge chore, it's not like waiting for emails where if you fall asleep or get distracted for a couple of hours everything is fine. You are ON CALL. I've known a couple people who (after 2-3 years) became alcoholics in order to cope with the boredom, stress and terrible hours of those kinds of maintenance positions.
At such a job you don't want to have to do mandatory overtime, because there is little to keep you occupied. Simultaneously, you want to be on your game 100% of the time you are there, which is why they want so many personal days. I would rather a person with a hangover, or sickness, or thinking about their sick kid, or whatever go home, rather than risk an accident.
This is Congress either wanting to stress test the human element of the system and see where it breaks enough to cause industrial damage, so we will have to weather at least one industrial disaster in order for this to be changed, OR they are finally deciding to strip out the copper wiring of the U.S. Hard to tell these days.
1 personal (unpaid) day per year is what I'm seeing.
Holy fucking shit that's bad
So the bill just forces them to take the latest negotiated contract or what exactly?
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Yeah. That's a worse contract than I had at my last job and it wasn't even union. We get three personal days a year. These people are way more essential and have much more strenuous jobs. Everybody thinks the trains run themselves, but the point is that the operators have to be there and awake and paying attention the whole time just in case something does go wrong, because the system doesn't always pick it up in time, and if that does happen, the result will be an industrial disaster.
Basically, Congress is clearly trying to break the union, and bargaining on the idea that computers have solved the real knowledge needed to run the trains. It is likely the union reps believe the same thing, because they are also computer jockey dickweeds, so they are willing to kowtow because they don't want the union to be broken. The reason the rank & file believes differently is because they run the trains day-to-day and understand that, if anything, they are under-staffed. The computers fuck up all the time, and even when things do run smoothly, being there and being at attention is a huge chore, it's not like waiting for emails where if you fall asleep or get distracted for a couple of hours everything is fine. You are ON CALL. I've known a couple people who (after 2-3 years) became alcoholics in order to cope with the boredom, stress and terrible hours of those kinds of maintenance positions.
At such a job you don't want to have to do mandatory overtime, because there is little to keep you occupied. Simultaneously, you want to be on your game 100% of the time you are there, which is why they want so many personal days. I would rather a person with a hangover, or sickness, or thinking about their sick kid, or whatever go home, rather than risk an accident.
This is Congress either wanting to stress test the human element of the system and see where it breaks enough to cause industrial damage, so we will have to weather at least one industrial disaster in order for this to be changed, OR they are finally deciding to strip out the copper wiring of the U.S. Hard to tell these days.